COUNTY GOVERNMENT OF NANDI ADVANCE OPEN GOVERNANCE THROUGH OPEN CONTRACTING FOR TRANSPARENT GOVERNANCE AND INCLUSIVE SERVICE DELIVERY
The County government of Nandi is committed to advancing the next frontiers of open governance in service delivery inline with the commitments made to Open Government partnership (OGP). The second commitment in line, is on the open publication of public procurement and contracting data to elevate civic participation and enhance public accountability.
In pursuit of this, the county government of Nandi on Tuesday, through the Department of Finance and Economic Planning;directorate of supply chain management, supported by HIVOS East Africa and Development Gateway: An IREX venture held a training for supply chain technical officers on the use and management of the open contracting Dashboard. The dashboard will provide a central source of government procurement processes and shape service delivery incentives towards a more transparent, inclusive and responsible government.
Open contracting is about opening up, providing open, accessible and timely information on public contracting in addition to monitoring public procurement, with the aim of allowing citizens and businesses to engage and participate in fixing needs and delivering efficient and all inclusive results through service delivery.
While opening the session, County Executive Committee Member(CECM), Finance and Economic Planning, CPA Hon Hillary Serem, accentuated the critical social standing of open contracting in institutionalizing service delivery procurement processes, more specifically within an organization as county government, where leadership is transitional, hence the need to have a strong base foundation for reliable systems, that will stand and supplement towards the continuous mandate of government irregardless, to the overall benefit of mwananchi.
“In a world where public trust and fiscal responsibility is central to sustainable need filling,open contracting stands as the linchpin for county governments. More specifically because of the nature of leadership transitions, hence demanding a standardized, strong and dependable technical processes for a seamless seal of accountability in governance.”
He also reiterated the perfect alignment of open contracting in evolving public participation and citizen informed data decision making that makes so a big inclusion of active engagement, adaptable to the constant landscape changes in governance and service delivery.
Chief officer ICT & E-Government, Mr. Jonathan Misoi, who is also the visionary and champion leader of open governance initiative in Nandi, stressed the important play that open contracting opens for elevating and fostering a sense of ownership and empowerment among citizens, resulting to precision of provision of well informed and efficienct services to the people of Nandi.
Chief Officer ICT & E-Government, Mr Jonathan Misoi.
County government of Nandi is the first county to actively take on open contracting after its successful implementation of its first commitment of OGP Nandi on public participation through the establishment and running of Nandi data desk, that hosts the county data desk that publishes, and enables users to obtain relevant actionable data on county activities and the Nandi County Call Centre that is the bedrock for 24/7, instant one on one citizen engagement on daily.
The officers are now expected to initiate the process starting on by hosting all data to the portal as furthest as 2017, comprising of contracts done, still ongoing and statistically analyze and present trends and needs of the sector.
Supply Chain Management Officers in Training.
Mr. Joshua Mbai, Senior Associate, Development Gateway, partner organization tasked with system design and hosting action plan led the team through how the procurement process is hosted in the system and how it fits in the system.
Mr. Joshua Mbai, Senior Associate, Development Gateway.
Director supply chain management, Mr. Japheth Tirop determined that the team is well positioned in its commitment to ensure transparency, correctness and timeliness in their task on open contracting.
Director Supply Chain Management, Mr. Japheth Tirop.
Also present was Mr. Simion Chepkwony, director ICT, Infrastructure &, E-Systems and Web Master, Mr. Evans Sirma.
Mr. Simion Chepkwony, Director ICT, Infrastructure &, E-Systems.